$100K-Plus Earners Pay 72% of Federal Income Taxes

(CNSNews.com) -- Taxpayers earning $100,000 or more a year pay 71.6% of the nation’s share in individual federal income taxes, according to the latest data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from 2011.

These data do not include corporate income taxes, or taxes on capital gains or dividends, or payroll taxes for Social Security and other programs.

In 2011, according to the IRS, there were 145,370,240 individual income tax returns filed. Among those returns, 125,914,418 or 86.6%, belonged to taxpayers earning a salary less than $100,000. The remaining 19,455,822 returns belonged to those taxpayers earning more than $100,000, or 13.4% of the total.

While those top earners, earning six figures or more, represented only 13.4% of the total number of individual income tax returns reported to the IRS, they contributed nearly three-fourths of the total amount of federal tax revenue from individual filers reported for that year.

Dome of the U.S. Capitol. (AP photo)

In 2011, the IRS collected $1,088,559,743,000 based on taxpayers' taxable income. From that total, 71.6%, or $779,547,834,000 came from those taxpayers earning six figures or more. Only 28.4%, or $308,816,180,000, came from those earning less than $100,000.

The IRS has been posting these tax data online since 1996, when the share of the nation’s tax-burden (on individual income) held by six-figure earners was 51%. Since then, the share of the nation’s taxes paid by six-figure earners has increased, peaking (so far) in 2007 when top earners paid 72.6% of the nation’s individual income taxes.

Those individual income taxes, $1.08 trillion, comprised 47% of the federal government's revenue in fiscal year 2011, which was $2.3 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The balance came from employment or social insurance taxes (36%); corporate income taxes (8%); excise taxes (3%); custom duties (0.3%); and miscellaneous receipts (4%). (See Historical Budget Data.xls and CBO Budget Outlook.pdf)

The business and economic reporting of CNSNews.com is funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold.

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